It has been a slow few weeks here at the foodgeek household. The CSA seems to be sending out the last of the winter vegetables, I’m making the same old food as always, and I’ve been slacking off on posting. I’m pretty sure this is all normal foodblogging news as it happens to the best of you out there.

To spark my interest, I bought a few goodies. Last week I got a huge box in the mail. In the box was my new Cuisinart ICE-50BC ice cream maker. This is a pretty big upgrade over my last machine, the ICE-20. The ICE-50BC doesn’t require prefreezing of the work bowl and can crank out batch after batch of ice cream. I’ve tested out the machine with a few flavors: matcha, hazelnut praline, and David Leibovitz’s roasted banana.

That brings me to yet another purchase, The Perfect Scoop. I figured I should support a fellow foodblogger since I would hope people would support me, too. The book is far better than I hoped and has all sorts of new recipes I’m eager to try out.

Switching gears, I purchased a large supply of chocolate from Chocosphere, 22lbs to be exact. I was tired of running over to Whole Foods and picking up their overprices block pieces, so I pulled the trigger on a chocolate stash of my own. In the almost as huge box as the ICE-50BC was a 10lb block of E.Guittard 35% milk chocolate, a 10lb block of E.Guittard High Sierra white chocolate, a 2lb block of Dagoba 35% organic milk chocolate, and a 2lb bag of Dagoba organic cocoa butter. This should hold me over for the better part of the year unless I go on a serious chocolate bender.

I bought one last thing to go along with all that chocolate, Andrew Shotts’ Making Artisan Chocolates. I’ve been looking for a quality candy book and I think this one fits the bill. Truffles, hand-dipped chocolates, and molded chocolates are the majority of the book. Shotts doesn’t go overboard on techniques and doesn’t stray too far from the topics at hand. The recipes are all rated by difficulty, which is a big help when you’re trying out something unfamiliar. I’ve already tackled a few recipes and hope to share a few of them with you soon.

Finally, I’d like to apologize to the UPS man. Thanks for hauling all that loot to my second story condo. If I have any goodies the next time you arrive, I’ll be sure to offer you some.

Ahh, I see Guittard has a big price break on the bloc over their wafers. I typically buy Valrhona from chocosphere (in fact, latest package just arrived today–yes!), and the price by weight of the discs and blocks are identical for Valrhona (dang).

I’m currently pretty happy in the low 70s. I tried a 83% that was practically baker’s chocolate.

I just ordered about 4 kilos of chocolate after running out (I know, I’m ashamed). I get mine in little discs, so it doesn’t make for as cool a photo as eater. Only 35%? We gotta get you up into the low 70s! 😉

Peas are so last month! I actually have about two pounds in the fridge waiting to be used up. Seabreeze gave out some strawberries about a month ago but I haven’t seen them again; oddly enough, we never got asparagus from BWR.

Be Wise strawberries are in at Peoples – along with asparagus, english peas and fava beans! I also just bought that book, and I can’t wait to try some of the recipes. Great photo of the eater! I may have to spring for my own chocolate stash one of these days, especially if I want to experiment with some of the fun stuff we are learning in class. :o)